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Last week, despite much Russian ass-kissing by Barack Obama, Russia’s chief diplomat spurned not only the notion of actual sanctions against the incipient nuclear weapons program being developed by Iran, with much Russian assistance, but even the threat of such sanctions. Soon after that, Putin himself began issuing ominous warnings about leaving Iran alone.

It was not a good week for the American President. First he was humilated when he sought to win the Olympic Games for his home city of Chicago, then when he won a Nobel Prize that nobody on the face of the Earth believes he deserves, and then finally when Russia spit in his eye after he unilaterally cancelled the ballistic missile system for Eastern Europe as part of his now infamous effort to “reset” relations with the neo-Soviet dictatorship.

Perhaps Russia is slowly coming to its senses. It really does begin to seem that Vladimir Putin’s neo-Soviet dictatorship is, under the pressure of his absolute economic failure, beginning to tremble at its foundations, ready to fall apart.

First we had the amazing admission of the leader of Russia’s upper house of parliament that the country’s Internet is an utter sham, just what we’ve been saying it was for years now.

Next, the Kremlin’s human rights ombudsman witheringly condemned the neo-Soviet tactics of Putin’s Hitler youth cult NASHI. Ella Pamfilova stated: “You must not divide the young into ‘ours’ and ‘not ours’ … and allow some to do practically everything while hampering the development of others.” The nationalists in the Duma promptly called for her ouster.

And then, even more amazingly, we had Vladimir Sokolin, the head of the State Statistics Service, openly accusing the Economic Development Ministry of cooking its books to make the Russian economy look far better than it actually is. Yet another confirmation from a high-ranking official Russian source that we’ve been right all along in loudly proclaiming that the Kremlin’s data is simply not reliable. As a reasult of his open criticism of the Kremlin’s efforts to lie about his data and to tell him what data he can and can’t collect, as well as it’s political decision to cancel the census, Sokolin being transferred to a new position.

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It’s always encouraging to see a Russian courageous enough to speak the truth to power. Alexander Lukin, director of the Center for East Asian and SCO Studies at Moscow State University for International Relations, does so in regard to Russian relations with China in the pages of the Moscow Times. Simply brutal stuff, sure to get him called “traitor” far and wide throughout his own land. Those who say so, of course, are the real enemies of the Russian people.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin held talks with his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, in Beijing on Tuesday. An official meeting between the two countries’ prime ministers will be held annually under the auspices of Russian-Chinese strategic cooperation and as part of efforts to form a permanent bilateral commission. Issues involving trade and economic cooperation are usually the main focus of these talks. During the latest visit, Putin and Wen signed more than 20 agreements on projects involving bilateral cooperation.

A joint communique was signed announcing the start of cooperation on ballistic missiles and missile delivery vehicles, as well as the establishment of cultural centers. There also were agreements on improving customs controls, developing high-speed train lines in Russia and cooperation between Russian and Chinese special economic zones.

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FSB Director Aleksandr Bortnikov said yesterday that “the special services of Georgia together with Al Qaeda are carrying out a war against the Russian Federation by coordinating the transfer of militants into Chechnya and Daghestan and also by supplying arms” to groups in those troubled republics.

That suggestion, implausible if not absurd on its face, has already been denied by the Georgian foreign ministry, but today, Sergey Markedonov, one of Russia’s leading specialists on the Caucasus, said the most disturbing thing about Bortnikov’s remarks was what they said about how Moscow officials are thinking about the Caucasus.

Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee, to which Bortnikov made that statement, “is more than a structure which is called upon to struggle with ‘the organizers of great acts of violence.’ Undoubtedly, it has ideological functions as well,” Markedonov continues. And this latest suggestion falls into that category.

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Here’s an interesting bit of analysis from Reuters, suggesting that Dima Medvedev may be the new Gorbachev — something Russians will ever so delighted to hear.

Something quite extraordinary is happening in Russia. Slowly but surely, the monolithic political system that has held together in Russia for most of the past decade is coming apart

Today, in an unprecedented step, deputies from all three of the opposition parties in the Russian parliament staged a walk-out, demanding a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. They are protesting against the results of local elections that were held in various parts of Russia on 11 October. Not for the first time, the pro-government United Russia party largely swept the board, amid widespread allegations by the opposition of vote-rigging.

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